How to brighten up your home this winter

'The look this season in interiors is bright, even dazzling'. Like the Designers Guild’s vivid citruses and green

By Stephanie Clark

3:33PM BST 04 Oct 2012

After a cold, rain-soaked summer, brightened only by the gleam of Olympic gold, one might be forgiven for groaning at autumn chills and winter gloom.

But stifle that grumbling. It turns out that we’ve merely had to wait for things to brighten up. Interiors this autumn and winter are not the cocoons of previous years; dark places in which to hibernate until spring arrives. Instead the look is bright, even dazzling. The textures popular in previous seasons are all there: velvets to stroke, woollen or linen/silk throws to snuggle into, cushions to laze back on, but the colours are very different.

Take the bright, virtually neon colours so popular in the past few months in fashion and furnishing, mute them slightly, and you’re in the right direction. There’s also a sense of the dramatic: jewel-like splashes – or more if you want – of rich blues, purples, jade and reddish pinks. Everyone is in on it: from B & Q to high-end designer Nina Campbell.

“It is very summery,” Campbell says of her eponymous range of wall coverings, fabrics and trims. “Wherever I go, people want light.”

The sensational looks range from stunning florals to the glamour of Middle-East inspired exotics. What is behind all this – and where are the minimalist taupes of yesteryear?

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“People, because of the economic situation, want to feel alive,” says British-based interior designer and stylist Melinda Ashton Turner, whose work can be seen here and in her native Australia. For this is Austerity Britain, in the throes of a double-dip recession that shows little sign of ending. And one of the great things about the push for brights is that it can also be achieved on a budget.

If planning a full makeover, start with the walls. There are great paints about – Farrow & Ball’s 300-strong paint library reveals some vibrant colours , as does good old Dulux – but advances in technology mean remarkable wallpaper patterns and textures: jewel-like velvets and strong metallics.

Campbell’s elegant contemporary florals are writ large this season, with high-gloss backgrounds, and more than a glint of metallic sheen: see her Woodsford collection, and the Corsham pattern in silver mica (52cm x 10m, £49, ninacampbell.com). There is high drama with the black and gold metallic of Boxgrove (as above).

Tricia Guild, of Designers Guild fame, always embraces colour, and her range also pays homage to the Aesthetic Movement.

“The colour palette is lustrous,” she says, “from violet, azure, cobalt and fuchsia, but combined with more organic shades such as olive, slate and chalk, giving an extra element of depth and dimension.”

One particular paper has me swooning: the colour-wash effect of Saraille, available in crocus and cobalt (£185 per 45cm x12m roll, designersguild.com). It’s a fiendishly simple way of injecting intense colour without overwhelming. Others include the intense velvet of Castellini (£104 per 10m roll), in fuchsia and cobalt, and the metallic finishes of Gautrait (wallpaper £75 per 10m roll; velvet fabric, £79 per metre, ) and beaded Vever (£80 per 10m roll). Everyone is doing it, in wallpaper, and fabrics: Osborne & Little and Colefax and Fowler – visit John Lewis, which stocks the work of 20 designers, including its eponymous range, to get a feel for it.

If a wall overhaul is beyond your interest, confidence level, ability or budget, try cunning tweaks. Paint just the inside of built-in bookcases, for example, as Campbell suggests. The concept isn’t new but it easily brings in colour. New curtains are another easy fix. Homebase, for example, has on-trend Whiteheads Mozart pre-lined sets in pink, aubergine and teal for just £64.99 (46inx72in/117cm x 183cm, homebase.co.uk); Designers Guild’s Pandora fabric, in a bold digital peony design, (140cm wide, 100 per cent linen, as before) is £125 a metre; and M & S’s curtains and blinds fabrics are worth investigating (so too its wider Caravan collection).

Campbell has some handy advice: “I redid my drawing room the other day, and just slipcovered a chair and put a couple of new cushions in.” She says trims update anything from sofas to simple linens (especially those with frayed edges). Hers are 1-11cm wide, and cost £5-£24 a metre.

Ian Mankin (ianmankin.co.uk), of classic striped ticking fame, has just released his first curtain range, Autumn Sheers. At £45 a metre and in 100 per cent linen, the subtle tones of sand and a rustic pale brown create a neutral backdrop to the latest cushions and throws, for accessorising is the easiest makeover of all. Ikea’s Emmi Blom (30cm x 60cm, ikea.com) is £4; John Lewis’s Chameli in poppy, magenta jade and yellow (30cm x 30cm, £25, johnlewis.com). Clarisa Hulse has silks with neon and metallic finishes (clarissahulse.com) and throws bursting with colour are all about: I love Orla Kiely’s 100 per cent lamb’s wool one in apricot and cream (£150, blisshome.co.uk). Speaking of Kiely, her inaugural furniture range makes its debut in early December, and chimes with the wood and mixed material trend seen during London Design Week.

If you buy one piece this season, support the brilliant artisans the UK produces and invest in quality. Berkshire-based Steuart Padwick always impresses: his Sticks coat stand (£295, steuartpadwick.co.uk) is just one item from a superb new collection; Irish-born, Glasgow-based furniture maker John Galvin’s latest collection is magnificent (johngalvindesign.co.uk). Do hunt out Bethan Grey (bethangrey.com), a highly praised newcomer.

As for sofas, whether it’s cosy colour you want (see sofa.com for classic shapes rethought in great colours) or sleek Scandinavian design (a good example is Mikko Ryhänen’s Kiki range at Skandium.com), everything is available – at a price. In an economic downturn, though, remember that slipcovers will cover a multitude of design sins.

See our gallery of interiors to that will add a splash of colour to your home.